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How to Handle family related school/task as a single parent

I am a Single mother of one son.Hes in grade 1 right now.During school activities we don't attend because I don't want him to envy others of having a father. I am with my (3years)boyfriend right now and my family doesn't agree on bringing him to school as my son's father.I still have issues with my family over my boyfriend.Do you think marrying my boyfriend will be the best answer to give my son a father image?

Honestly, I think you should only marry your boyfriend if you both want to commit to each other as husband and wife. I don't think you should do it for any other reason. Marriage can be wonderful but it is also hard and involves time to grow together, unite and join lives (even if we have been with our partners as girlfriend and boyfriend for some time previously) and so I do not think you can enter into marriage with the main reason of to give your son a father image.

It sounds like you love both your son and your boyfriend very much. Your son is already acutely aware that he does not have a father present in his life; I personally do not feel you need to not go to school activities as these are important to be involved in whatever your family setup is. I also feel that part of the issue here is that you have to be the one to make the decisions about your son's parenting and how involved your boyfriend is; it sounds like your wider family are making some of the decisions. It is natural for our family members to want to tell us their views and concerns but ultimately they need to respect who is the parent in the situation.

What does your boyfriend think? Does your son have a good relationship with him?

Have you been on the 'raising children network website'? There are some useful resources here under the parenting after separation section.